Manufacture of artificial material.



UNITE STATES PATENT Games,

ERNEST KINGSCOTE, OF LONDON, ENGLAND.

MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFlClAL MATERIAL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N o. 632,? 23, datedSeptember 12, 1899.

Application filed April 9, 1898. Serial No. 677,088. (Specimens) To allwhom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ERNEST Kmesoorn, physician, a subject of the Queenof Great Britain and Ireland, and a resident of 31 Lower Seymour street,Portmau Square, London, England, have invented a new and useful Methodof lllanufacture of Artificial Material, (for which I have applied forapatent in Great Britain, No. 22,475, dated September 30, 1897,) of whichthe following is a specification.

My invention has for its object to provide a new material to be employedin place of wood, iron, leather, and the like in the construction ofvarious articles, the said new material being extremely strong, verydurable and practically indestructible in ordinary use, and having aconsiderable amount of resilience.

According to my invention I manufacture the improved material by takingWool fibers, preferably the wool of lambs or of sheep, and 1 subject thesaid fibers to a high degree of felting by felting and refelting,accompanied or not by mechanical compression, until the material assumesabout the consistency and strength of leather. The wool fiber afterbeing thus treated is subjected to a process of tanning, preferably withoak bark, or to a tanning process known as crome tanning, whereby thefelted wool fibers require a high degree of rigidity and whereby amaterial is formed from the said wool fibers which can be used as asubstitute for wood, leather, or metal, for instance, in theconstruction of railway-wheels and other parts of railway rolling-stockor in the making of sleepers or other parts of the permanent way. Thesaid material will also be suitable for use in n1aking such articles asgun-stocks, soles for boots, and various other articles which havehitherto been made of wood, leather, or metal.

The wool fibers may be felted and compressed in molds to give therequisite shape or a shape approximating to the article or articles tobe produced, or the material maybe made in blank sheets or the like andafterward the required article or articles be cut or fashionedtherefrom.

WVhen it is required that the material be waterproof, I may subject itto any well-known process for securing this result; but I prefer totreat the material for this purpose with a solution of nitrated oil andcellulose.

I claiml. The manufacture and production of a new material from woolfiber by first felting said fiber, and then subjecting said felted fiberto a process of tanning, substantially as described.

2. The manufacture and production of a new waterproof material from woolfiber by first felting said fiber, then subjecting the felted fiber to aprocess of tanning, and finally rendering the same waterproof, as setforth.

3. As a new article of manufacture, felted wool which has been subjectedto a process of tanning, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence oftwo subscribing witnesses.

ERNEST KINGSCOTE.

Witnesses:

PERCY EBENEZER MATTooKs, WILLIAM OswALn BROWN.

